‘Zero survival skills but max aura’: Man stumbles across a still-forming tornado and captures every storm chaser’s dream video

As the second of two devastating hurricanes once again rip toward the Florida coast, climate change and deadly weather have become the primary talking point across the United States.

We (and by we I mean the world, not the States) face increasingly severe weather every year, and as weather disasters become more common, so do foolish clout-chasers risking life and limb to win useless internet points. Brave, silly souls like TikTok user @javiii.com4, who was fully willing to throw caution to the wind to capture a stellar video in return.

The content creator might be eying a future in storm chasing after his late-August video went sharply viral, collecting nearly four and a half million views and 807,000 likes from gobsmacked commenters. He was simply enduring another day of work — he seems to be in construction, based on all the supplies stacked around the shop — when he captured a truly incredible image of a tornado’s formation.

Well, a dust devil, but that simply doesn’t sound as impressive. It also doesn’t look as impressive from afar, but if @javiii.com4’s video is any indication, it’s certainly scary to witness from just a few feet away. A 51-second video uploaded to the TikToker’s page makes that plenty clear, as it lays witness to the formation of an impressive dust devil, which then sweeps past — through, really — the TikToker and his co-workers, before tearing its way onward, toward a nearby roadway.

It may be smaller and less intense than a tornado, but that dust devil sure looks dangerous as it whips its way through the gathered workers, picking up steam and debris as it does. It’s thankfully not common for dust devils to cause excessive damage, which left @javiii.com4 and his peers unscathed, and instead dazzled, by their close brush with Mother Nature’s might.

While it certainly looks big from @javiii.com4’s angle, one thing clearly identifies his tempest as a dust devil, rather than a full-blown tornado. On top of its minimal destruction, size, and likely short lifespan, the dust devil @javiii.com4 captured forms from the ground up. Tornadoes descend from the sky, and often last much longer. They’re also brought on by thunderstorms, whereas dust devils — commonly found in hot, arid regions like the southwest United States — are created by surface heating, which matches the setting and attire in @javiii.com4’s video.

Still, tornado or not, it’s a wild decision to just let an unrestrained column of violent, swirling air sweep over you, rather than seek cover. But that’s exactly what @javiii.com4 and his co-workers did, with extremely lucky results. Not only do they all appear to have walked away from the interaction unscathed, but their diligence resulted in a truly breathtaking video.

The foolishness of his decision was not lost on commenters, however, who ditched lectures in favor of some good old-fashioned razzing. Numerous people noted that @javiii.com4 really put the “cameraman never dies” concept to the test, and poked fun at the man who willingly “rawdawged a tornado.”

Requests for a second perspective were also quickly fulfilled, providing viewers with yet another chance to revel in the brazen band of bros willing to face down a baby tornado for the Vine — or, in this case, for the Tok.